March Round-Up and One Fully Finished Gallery Entry!

Maybe some day I'll have time and opportunity to do these wrap-ups at the beginning of the month instead of the middle, but not this time. :) I'll hold out hope for April since I have plans for May at this point. 

I kept Amazing Animal Kingdom as my focus project, and also had several others come out for a little bit of work. 

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Fire Designs

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Monaco as charted

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full crosses on 28ct Monaco (added some white above the dragons)

Lots to go on this, but a lot is in 032 Kreinik and that seems to be out everywhere, so I'm in no hurry on this one. 

Canadian Hero (Terry Fox) by Stitching Jules Designs

stitched 1 over 1 on 25ct easy guide as charted

I haven't been back to this since I started, but hope to finish his face first and make sure I'm happy with it before continuing with the rest. 41 years and 2 days ago Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope in the far east of Canada. 

In Harmony by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 (or as charted) with kit threads and fabric

This one is my oldest WIP right now I think, so I use it for "penalty" stitching in one of the Facebook groups. It's had a decent amount of progress in the last few months, so a finish this year might be within the realm of possibility. 

Under the Sea SAL hosted by Lakeside Needlecraft by Durene Jones

stitched 2 over 2 as charted except for this part, the submarine is charted as grey

Diamond Painting! Tried something new when I wasn't feeling cross stitch one day. That has happened a lot in the last year, and will likely continue until things are more settled and "normal". Who knows when that will be. This was fun and it's a fairly small project as these things go, so something I might pull out again to work on this year and eventually finish. It will be a wolf face. These are square drills/diamonds and I think round would be better, but I'll finish it with what I have. 

Amazing Animal Kingdom by Aimee Stewart charted by HAED

stitched 2 over 1 tent stitch on 32ct experimental fabric by Chromatic Alchemy

I'm almost done a second page on this one, below the first page. I didn't quite manage it by the end of the month because of getting caught by a mini-obsession. 

Patsy Pine by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 1 on perforated paper as charted

I picked this up again at the end of the month to see where I could get to. I felt like it was going pretty well, and although this my March 31st stitching, this project is now finished, as well as 3 others. 

Yes, my mini-obsession is trying to get things finished in April! So I haven't touched Animal Kingdom at all and it is safe in a project bag until I get back to it. I haven't taken it out of the qsnap because I'd been planning to get to it, but I think I might go ahead and do that since I still have new startitis and might do a full 31 starts in May. 

I took a day to sort out some options for projects, kit things up, and tried to keep it somewhat reasonable. I still have plans for the new starts during the Olympics with Rachel and those projects are already set. Unless I change my mind again. :) 

And you saw this one in my GG post, but here it is again, a big finish for me!

Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 or as charted with kit threads and fabric

And finally my FFO!

Happy Easter freebie

stitched 1 over 1 with Dinky Dyes oops threads on scrap of 18ct CA fabric

I glued this to a card and then forgot to give it to DD for Easter, so it will wait till next year. That sounds so unlike me.... 

I'm still debating on 31 new starts. I don't need that many of course, but it's not about that. I was trying to organize some things and noticed I'd been running out of room for fabric, so started thinking I could start more things, or at least kit them up and have things earmarked for certain projects. That got me back to thinking about just going ahead and starting things I've been wanting to right now instead of waiting till July. I easily found enough projects, and took a day to more fully whittle things down. I have 22 fully kitted, so that's a good start. That may or may not be what's driving my desire to finish things this month, and I have 4 complete already, so maybe another 4 will be possible before the end of the month. That would put a good dent in the WIPs at least. 

I hope you've all had a good April so far. Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness 2021 - March Edition and February Wrap-Up

I'm finally managing to get myself together enough to post for Gifted Gorgeousness! Hosted as always by the excellent Jo, please check her post to get the links for everyone's posts and check out their lovely works. 

I haven't managed many posts this year so far, but I have been very dedicated to keeping up with the huge HAED I started on New Year's Day, Amazing Animal Kingdom. Another WIP was finished this past month, as well as a bit of work on a few others too. I got a little behind in my stitching for Animal Kingdom while I finished Princess and the Dragon back in January, but I'm almost caught up to where I had hoped to be by now, well over 20K stitches! 

Enough talking, what have I been stitching? 

In Harmony - for DH

In Harmony - kit by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 2 or 3 over 2 as charted, tent and full stitches with kit threads and fabric

I started this one many, many years ago, when I was still into cross stitch kits and unaware of any other options. Shortly after starting this, I discovered this whole other world of cross stitch designers and charts and fabric that I obviously had to try! So this hasn't had a heck of lot of work over the past few years, but will get a fair bit this year. One of the Facebook challenge groups wants you to stitch on your oldest WIP if you don't have a WIP that fits that week's challenges and I think this is currently my oldest WIP. 

When I pulled it out this year, it looked like this:

Kiss for a Snowman - for DD

Kiss for a Snowman - Dimensions kit

stitched as charted with kit threads and fabric and a bazillion French knots!

This one has been hanging around since CJC of 2015 I think. I'm so glad to get it finished off. I'm thinking a flat fold might be a good way to finish it, although I might just frame it as well. It's so nice to finish!

Do Not Meddle - stunt stitching

Do Not Meddle - by Dragon Dreams

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Monaco with charted DMC

I'm so far behind on finishing this one, but I still have some hope it will happen this year. One whole dragon to stitch, and less than half of another isn't too much stitching to do. 

Twilight LeMans - for DH

Twilight LeMans - by Heritage Stitchcraft

stitched 2 over 2, 1 over 2 on unknown 28ct fabric

with DMC as charted

Another one that's been hanging around since 2015 or 2016 and those Crazy January/February Challenges, and you can kind of see the cars now, which have some weird quarter stitches to try and get the shape. Hopefully they'll turn out okay. 

Moon and Back - for DD

Moon and Back by Heart in Hand

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct linen with Gloriana threads mostly

This is a long narrow piece, and mostly words, so I don't think it will take too long if I'm able put a little bit of time into it. Plus I'd like to get it done while DD still appreciates this kind of stuff. I know she might not in another few years. 

And now, the project some of you might have been waiting for, Amazing Animal Kingdom! Last time I showed it, it looked like this:

And now, one full page is done and over 3/4 of another is complete, plus some into another 2 pages, and there's a little over 21K tent stitches into this one so far:

Amazing Animal Kingdom by HAED and Aimee Stewart

stitched 2 over 1 tent stitch on 32ct experiment 19 by Chromatic Alchemy

I'm still pretty happy with this one, and it's neat seeing all the animals appear. There's the cockatoo, a gorilla, a parrot or macaw, a cheetah below that and an elephant is starting to appear with a baby right below it. I'll still stick with it and see how it goes. If I use this as a focus piece, it will take a few years to complete, so we'll see if I can stick with it. 

Stay well and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

WIP Wranglers Part 2

I've stitched some more on some of the WIP Wranglers WIPs, in fact, they're mostly ones you've already seen because I kept rolling ones I'd already worked on. I have 9 that I haven't even rolled yet. 

We left off at the circle dragon last time, next up was Kiss for a Snowman and a rolled a 4, so 800 stitches were added:

Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 or as charted

with kit threads and fabric

And then Princess and the Dragon was rolled again, this time a 5, so only 500 stitches since this was the second time it had come up. And now it looks like:

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Amarithine by Chromatic Alchemy

with DMC 310

There's less than 6000 stitches left now, I was off on my count last time, so again, this could be a finish pretty soon. 

Next up was Kiss for a Snowman again! This time for 100 only. I decided to stitch a lot of the half stitch to get some of that completed. Here's how it looks now:

It's so close! It's very tempting to stick with it, but at least I'm getting a lot of them very close to a finish now. 

I rolled another project for a second time once more, this time Winter, and it only got another 100 stitches. That was a bit annoying as 300 or 400 might have finished it, but I stuck with the roll. 

Winter by Bent Creek

stitched 2 over 1 on 28ct Feldspar by Chromatic Alchemy

stitched with stash threads, WDW and some DMC

I think this one needs to stay out and get finished, one good night of stitching and it will be done. 

Another repeat project was next, Twilight LeMans for 200 only. So you can maybe tell these are headlights on a wet road a little easier:

Twilight LeMans by Heritage Stitchcraft (OOP)

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on unknown 28ct linen

I think I still have at least half of the stitching left on this one, so it will be a few days to finish, possibly a week. 

This next one I could have wished for a few more stitches, but a good 200 went into G, second time for this one too!

Letters From Nora - G by Nora Corbett

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

Once again this series won't be finished this year, but hopefully early next year. A good week should get this done and all three of them beaded. I ran out of CC Smoke, so I need to order that first. 

What's that? Another repeat WIP up next? You're not wrong. Christmas Dragon was the next one for another 300, which if you remember is more stitches than it needed the first time. Now it's quite far along as well:

Dragon silhouette by Lisbei (ludinthemist.com)

stitched 2 over 1 with Caron Waterlilies Holiday

on 14ct gold sparkle Aida

This might need a couple nights of stitching, but again, should be a fairly quick finish. 

And you guessed it, another WIP I've already rolled and stitched on came up, Happy Halloween! Such a seasonal choice. :)

Happy Halloween by Satsuma Street

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 20ct Fiddler's aida?

And that's it for now! The next one up is Loved You Yesterday, which looked like this last time you saw it in the summer:

Loved You Yesterday by Cherry Hill Stitchery

stitched with stash threads, WDW and Jodyri so far

on 18 ct damask by Silkweaver

Hopefully I'll be able to get my act together and get the 1000 stitches this one needs finished up, there's still a lot of stitching left before the end of the year if I want to try and wrangle all of these WIPs. I have some hope of finishing Loved you Yesterday since 1000 stitches should get it close to a finish. All of this stitching will play into my 2021 plans of trying to finish off some WIPs because I think I might have talked myself into starting this one:

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

September Crazy Domino Event - Projects 10-12

 It's time again for another update on this crazy project. The goal is to work on a lot of WIPs and try and link them in whatever way you can manage. I've linked some for same designer, same animal, the moon was in both, etc. 

Project 10 brings us to one that's been hanging around for a while. It was linked because there's a girl in this one, just like in Full Moon. It's part of 3 projects I'm stitching on one piece of fabric and I finished the second project earlier this year. This is letter G from Letters from Nora. I had stitched some previously, but had miscounted, so had to frog it all and start again. This is the start:

Letter G from Letters from Nora by Nora Corbett

stitched as charted 2 over 2 on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

since I'm on 1000 stitches now, 1000 stitches got me to here:

and a pic of all 3 together:

There's some hope I'll finish by a certain birthday in November, but I'm not holding out hope. I have a back-up project, so maybe this can be a Christmas finish. 

Project 11 is one that I've had out a fair bit this year. Because fairies are romantic, and the next project has a kiss, I linked them that way. This is Kiss for a Snowman, a Dimensions kit, that started here:

and after 1100 stitches, of which many were half stitches in the background, it's here:

Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on kit fabric

Again, there's some chance this will be a finish this year. I'm wondering if December will be a kind of "race to the finish" month where I try and get a lot of stuff done that's fairly close. 

Lastly, I linked Project 12 through the fact they both take place in winter. This is where Mini Winter Magic was when I last set it down a couple months ago:

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched as charted 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct monaco

It's funny how little difference 1200 stitches makes in a project this size, but there is some change, more depth to the dragons, etc. The challenges are great for this type of stitching, sort of stick in and get it done. 

And that's where we're at so far. I will admit to slowing down a bit as stress has crept up again, but I hope to get at least another couple projects done. If I can get to 15 for the month, I'll be happy with that. 

I hope you're all staying well and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - August 2020 Edition

I missed last month and am almost missing this month too! So that means lots of photos, hopefully no one minds. :) Please check out the list at Jo's amazing blog if you haven't already, and see what everyone else has stitched.

1) for DD

 Loved You Yesterday by Cherry Hill Stitchery

stitched with stash threads on 14count damask aida

2) for DD

 Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco

3) for parents

 Woodland Santa by Mill Hill 

stitched as charted with kit threads and beads

4) for DD

 mini Faery Tales by HAED

stitched 2 over 1 on 18ct aida as charted

5) for DD

 Moon and Back by Heart in Hand

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct linen with Gloriana silks

6) for Clare-Aimetu 

 free flower from Durene Jones FB page

stitched as charted to send to Clare for her flower tree

7) for DD

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy 

8) for DD

Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched as charted with kit threads and aida

9) for Dad

Siberian Forest QS by HAED

stitched as charted 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco

I was debating about putting the last one as its own post because it's so exciting to have finished it! My first ever HAED finish! But I'll put it in here and work on FFO'ing it for Rachel's FFO post next month. My dad is having a big birthday this year, so I think it will be a good gift. He does love tigers. I also debated keeping it, but I think I'd like to pass it on. I have others I want to finish and put up in our house too. I swear Pattern Keeper is amazing. This never would have been finished without that app. 

I hope you've all had good months! I plan on getting another post up soon with plans for the rest of the year now that we're almost out of August and I feel that I've caught up on some things I wanted to work on. 

Happy Stitching! and stay well!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness 2020 - February Edition

GG time! Please check out Jo's blog for everyone else's posts and the Secret Stitching Sweethearts if you haven't yet.

It seems appropriate that GG comes so close after Valentine's Day since there are so many fun Valentines to give people, or to give loved ones cross stitches for Valentines Day. This year the plan is to give DH this one, which you have seen before:

I Love You More Today by Jodyri Designs 

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Eye of Newt by Chromatic Alchemy

And I haven't stitched anything new for DD like the last couple years. I'm debating about giving her Somebunny, which is finished, but hasn't been given to anyone yet. I finished this a couple years ago if you remember:

Somebunny from WOXS 183

stitched as charted 2 over 2 on 28ct Aether by Chromatic Alchemy

As for other WIPs in progress to be given as gifts, let's catch up from last month. 

 Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched as charted, 2 over 1 on 16ct kit fabric

This will be for DD, and since it's early in the year, maybe it will get finished this year?

 See Ya Later Alligator by Jodyri Designs

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy with stash threads

This will be another gift for DD, and it should be finished soon. I started it February 19, 2016, so maybe I can get it complete for the 4 year anniversary?

 Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy

Another gift for DD, and can I tell you how excited I am about reaching the top left corner!!! So excited, it's so amazing to have one entire side stitched! I'll continue to work across the top set of pages and hope to get some good progress in before the March conference. 

 Mini Waterhole Master by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Sunrise by Crafty Kitten as charted DMC

DD is claiming this one too, although I don't think she realizes how long it's going to take me to finish it. By the time I'm done, she may not be interested any more. 

I hope you've all had a good month and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch